Business as UNusual
Stephanie Armstrong
Empowering purpose-driven leaders to embody their vision, command attention, and ignite impactful growth with award winning marketing, branding, events & technology
To say that we are living through an unprecedented time in history seems like an understatement. Personally, I have gone back and forth for weeks, attempting to wrap my mind around the global pandemic we find ourselves in today. COVID-19 has disrupted nearly every facet of our lives: our physical health, mental health, our professional lives, social lives, personal relationships, our businesses, our teams, our jobs, our productivity (or lack thereof), our financial stability, weddings, graduations - even funerals.
It elicits feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, grief and uncertainty. A total loss of control. A lot of questions.
What will life look like on the other side of this? Where, exactly, is the other side? Will we survive it?
As a consultant, I find myself in the middle of many crucial conversations, helping to sort through the long list of implications of COVID-19. I’m an eternal optimist, bordering sometimes on idealism, and I’m also a realist. Realistically, some of our old ways of doing things won’t survive and although I would never cheer for the closing of a business - I do encourage each and every business to contemplate the ways this may encourage their product or service model to evolve.
For the foreseeable future, business will be conducted mostly through computer, tablet and phone screens, social media pages, Zoom meetings and Slack groups. We’ll have to think of new, innovative ways to support each other that may seem quite out of the box - but isn’t that exactly what we’ve needed? A shake-up of the status quo? Something to push us, mercilessly, out of our comfort zone?
Business as usual has gotten quite UNusual.
Although this will be one of the most challenging experiences we have endured together in quite a long time, we have a unique opportunity to adapt and prepare for the next evolution of business.
Here are a few of the immediate evolutionary needs and opportunities you can be focusing on right now:
Remote Working
Get yourself and your team set-up properly for remote working. Having the right tools in place to manage communication, collaboration and automation truly make all the difference. If you haven’t already, take a look at Zoom, Slack and Monday to get your wheels turning - and if you need help, reach out to a professional to finesse your set-up!
Virtual Product & Service Models
Today, consumers have become quite accustomed to their products and services being delivered to them. Throughout the crisis, this will be more important than ever. We are working with educators who are transitioning to online tutoring, health practitioners who are developing online wellness programs, salons who are developing product-based memberships. Creativity - and flexibility - are key!
Valuable Content
We’re all trapped in the house so guess what we’ll be doing a lot more of? Content consumption - watching videos, reading articles and blogs, finally engaging on social media posts. Now is the time to create valuable content for your audience base. What wisdom can you share with them to help them through this time? How can you be a resource, a support or a guide? Don’t just put any ol’ thing out. Make sure it really provides value, otherwise you’ll get lost in a sea of content spam.
Social Media
All that valuable content typically gets distributed in one major place - social media. So make sure your platforms are current and up-to-date, engage with others on the platform, share valuable, relevant content and make your presence known! Since we won’t be able to go to happy hours or networking events for a while, social media will be one of the only ways to stay in communication with your colleagues, current and future clients. If you’re not currently active, now is a great time to start and if you’ve already been active (APPLAUSE), ramp it up responsibly!
Leadership Development
There’s nothing like a crisis to show you where you can brush up on your leadership skills. Navigating difficult waters with clients, partners, vendors and staff can be especially burdensome right now given the nature of everything we’re dealing with. Reading books or articles, watching videos, taking courses or working with a leadership coach or consultant is wildly helpful when making fast & long-lasting decisions in a rapidly changing environment.
...and lastly,
Please make sure to unplug and practice self-care on off-hours to stay grounded, healthy, rested and refreshed. Stress is a silent killer and a major suppressor of the immune system response, so make taking care of YOU your #1 priority!
If you or your team need help with remote working, virtual product and service models, content and social media marketing or leadership development, please don't hesitate to contact us - we love to help: ciao@biqimarketing.com
Sr Project Manager, Sr Release Manager, LSSBB. Successful cross-functional project team leadership, identifying and implementing process improvements, and creating lean processes in highly technical environments.
4yStephanie Armstrong - Very well written and quite thoughtful. You have done an excellent job calling out some of the uncomfortable changes we find ourselves adjusting to within society and business. Many are going to be hurt as we go through the duration - some physically, many emotionally, and many businesses, if they survive, will never be the same. These are unprecedented times and in many ways we are quite lucky that this did not occur 20 or more years ago - imagine trying to convert to shelter in place and carry on work prior to the tools and networks available to us these days. Thanks for sharing your thoughts - hopefully you do not mind, I'd like to copy/paste a link to your article onto my companies internal Slack channels for others to view. Wishing you warm thoughts, safety, and good health.